Russia sent a delegation to Belem, Brazil, where COP30 is being held, but climate change action and environmental protection do not play a huge role in Russian self-interest.
Just two years ago, Russian authorities declared several of the world’s largest organizations working in this area “undesirable.” This included Greenpeace, the World Wildlife Fund, or WWF, and the Norway-based non-profit, Bellona Environmental Foundation.
Nevertheless, this has not stopped Bellona from reporting on Russia’s environmental problems. Bellona told DW that its analysts mostly use open-source information to do this. Meanwhile, in response to a question from DW, the WWF said it is “no longer active in Russia.”
In 2023 alone, 38 environmental organizations in Russia were classified as “foreign agents,” the Russian Socio-Ecological Union, or RSEU, reported. Of those, 25 were forced to cease operations.
However, this does not mean that Russia’s ecologists are not active at all, said Vladimir Slivyak, one of the co-founders of the Russian organization Ecodefense.
Ecodefense was already classified as a “foreign agent” in 2014 because it received foreign funding and was later declared legally inactive.
Slivaik, who now lives in Germany, said that ecologists still have some room to point out environmental issues, although Ecodefense cannot do so because it is banned.
Environmental protest goes ‘underground’
“There are climate protection activities in Russia, but they take place underground,” Slivyak told DW. Parts of his organization operate from abroad and help with campaigns against Russian fossil fuels from abroad, for example.
“There are devices that allow anyone to remotely monitor the environment,” he said. “It is not always necessary to collect samples on site. There are satellites and many other analytical methods. Therefore, it is not really a problem to find out what is happening to the environment in Russia.”
According to Bellona’s statement, all international NGOs have been expelled from Russia and local activists have been intimidated, imprisoned or deported.
“Only those who have adapted to the military and political situation are still active,” the organization reported. He said the pressure on Russian climate activists has been “unacceptably high” for years.
Arctida, an organization dedicated to the protection of the Arctic, has also been barred from operating in Russia.
However, there are still workers with whom Arctida is in contact, said Nail Farkhatdinov, coordinator of Arctida’s analytical department. It’s just that they are less visible.
“People are trying to be active at the local level to inspire others to make change,” he said. “This work may not be visible from the outside but there are still different activities going on.”
Climate change ‘an opportunity’
Meanwhile, the environmental protection organizations that were banned are being replaced by “state-affiliated civil society structures”, which are organizations originally established with the assistance of the Russian state. They are prone to “greenwashing”, portraying the activities of Russian businesses as more environmentally friendly than they actually are.
According to Farkhatdinov, these “state-affiliated” organizations are also often funded by companies trading in raw materials and natural commodities. “It raises questions about their independence,” he said.
All this is creating what Farkhatdinov describes as an “alternative environmental agenda”, subordinate to the interests of the Russian state.
An example is how Russia is dealing with the melting of Arctic ice through higher temperatures due to climate change. The Russian state does not see this as a problem, he said, but as an opportunity: It could mean cargo ships are able to transit the Northeast Passage – the shortest sea link between Europe and Asia, and an alternative to the Suez Canal – all year round.
“The state doesn’t see climate change as a threat, they see it as a resource,” Farkhatdinov said.
According to the Norway-based organization Bellona, ”Russian officials no longer even pretend to care about environmental issues.”
Globally, Russia shows strong commitment to environmental issues. But in reality, Russia is pursuing goals that will only increase environmental damage, such as, for example, fossil fuel extraction in the Arctic.
“The situation has worsened dramatically,” said EcoDefense’s Slivyak, adding that over the past few years the Russian state has openly shown how little it cares about environmental issues. Russia itself is on the verge of major environmental problems, he said.
“In reality, Russian officials are the enemies of the global environment,” Slivyak said. “Every year, climate change results in more serious events – landslides, mudslides, torrential rains, drought, desertification, declining crop yields, epidemics – and these harm both the Russian state budget and the health of ordinary Russians.”
In his opinion, Russia is actively harming international efforts to save the environment.
Climate activists ‘enemies of the state’
There were 3,850 demonstrations last year, according to the Russian-language website Activatica, an online platform covering grassroots activism in the country. Of those, 580 focused on the environment. Some of the most famous included protests against limestone mining on the Kushtau Mountains in Bashkortostan, against construction work in the Tomilino Forest Park near Moscow, and against the construction of a landfill in Novosibirsk.
Slivyak believes that the number of environment-focused protests is still relatively high because the topic is often seen as apolitical. This, he explained, is a perception that has persisted since the fall of the Soviet Union.
“Maybe that’s why there are still such protests and people are trying to do something about nature conservation, stopping deforestation or stopping the construction of dangerous facilities,” he said.
But this is also just an illusion, he argued. Environmental advocacy in Russia today is as dangerous as any other type of political activism, he said.
He argued that the Russian authorities are working towards a dictatorship that rules over a completely subjugated society. “Anyone who engages in activities not authorized by the authorities automatically becomes an enemy of the regime.”
According to the Environmental Crisis Group, a Russian initiative that supports environmental activists, a total of 487 activists working in the sector in Russia had to deal with politically motivated repression in 2022 and 2023. An additional 95 cases were reported in 2024.
This article was originally written in Russian.
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